USGS Geological Research Activities with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

New collaborations and opportunities

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Earth Surface Dynamics

Eolian history of North America

This fall, USGS scientists began to study the age and origin of stabilized sand dunes that occupy the northernmost part of the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Alaska. Many of the wetlands in this wildlife refuge either are the result of interdune depressions or creation of small lakes as a result of dune dams. Although these studies are just beginning, they have important implications for management of the refuge, because reactivation of the dunes could alter the existing wetlands, which are critical for wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Alaska quaternary climate history

The study of past climates and ecological changes in Alaska will provide important insights to understanding the likely consequences of future climate changes in high latitude ecosystems. Future climate changes, whether triggered by human-induced changes in the atmosphere or by natural climate cycles, will result in changes in the species composition and distribution of vegetation types. On the basis of the fossil record and climate history of Alaska, we can expect that future periods of cooler, drier climate will result in shrinkage of forest boundaries, lowering of altitudinal tree line, and expansion of tundra vegetation into lower elevations. A future change to warmer, moister climates will result in expansion of Alaska's forests into areas now occupied by tundra. The past record also shows that the magnitude of future global-scale climate changes and ecological responses will be greater at high latitudes than at lower latitudes. USGS scientists are currently working on reconstructing the ecosystem history of part of the Kenai lowland. New knowledge of ecosystem history and ecosystem responses to climate change can be applied to problems of land-use management in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, as well as climate modeling, archeology, and vertebrate paleontology.

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Coastal and Marine Geology

Coastal habitats in Puget Sound

This fall, USGS is embarking on research studies of the coastal habitats in Puget Sound estuary to help address the science needs of resource managers in the region. As human population and development in the Puget Sound basin has increased, the overall health of the Puget Sound estuary has steadily decreased. Impairment of nearshore processes and habitat in the Sound, extending over 2,000 miles of shoreline, is believed to be a critical factor in the declining health of the Puget Sound ecosystem. However, the complex role of geological, biological, and hydrological habitat-forming processes in maintaining ecosystem health is poorly understood.

In response to past and ongoing pressures on the nearshore of Puget Sound, the USFWS has joined the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration (PSNER) partnership. PSNER is a partnership of local, State and Federal agencies; tribes; businesses; non-governmental organizations; and universities. This group is working to restore and preserve nearshore habitat in order to help rehabilitate the health of the Puget Sound ecosystem and prevent future damage as human population in the basin continues to increase. PSNER partners, including USFWS, need the ability to predict and evaluate outcomes of possible restoration and preservation options prior to their implementation. Once options have been implemented, outcomes need to be monitored to verify that the projects have their intended impacts and can be adjusted as needed. This adaptive management approach to ecosystem rehabilitation requires that the ecological function of the nearshore habitat of Puget Sound be better understood.

USGS is coordinating closely with PSNER partners to identify major data and information gaps and to develop an integrated-science plan to improve our understanding about how natural processes in Puget Sound work. A multi-year, multi-disciplinary plan to provide scientific information on habitats, fish and wildlife populations, and nearshore physical and biological processes is being developed by the USGS and its partners. The first phase of the plan includes starting to fill important data gaps in nearshore physiography and initiating several pilot studies in selected sites.

 

 

 

 

This fall, USGS is initiating the following studies:

• Geological reconstruction and hydrodynamic processes of major river deltas. Initial studies will be of the Skagit delta and will include geological and environmental reconstruction, sediment and nutrient/pollutant transport pathways and fluxes, and fluvial sediment input. Similar studies may be carried out in the Nisqually delta in following years.
• Determining the effects of Elwha dam removal on nearshore habitats. Work will characterize nearshore habitats prior to dam removal. This work will probably be delayed because removal of the dam has been postponed.
• Determining sediment dynamics in mixed grain-size beaches - along beaches with shoreline armoring, in areas of seagrasses, and beaches associated with coastal bluffs.
• Light detection and ranging (lidar) studies of nearshore bathymetry to characterize water-column turbidity and bottom habitats.
• Determining estuary utilization by juvenile chinook salmon to evaluate the use of otolith (ear stones) microstructure for investigating: (1) age and size at entry to the estuary (2) length of residence and growth in association with salt marsh or other estuarine habitats (3) differences in these traits among different runs of salmon occurring in the same river system.
• Surveying salmonids and forage fishes in Puget Sound. In collaboration with NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), USGS will conduct tow-net surveys in Puget Sound.

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Atlantic coastal groundwater systems

Sound management of coastal water supply, water quality, and ecosystem health requires knowledge of the complex interaction of coastal aquifers with the ocean. USGS scientists seek to quantify the amount and distribution of submarine discharge in Atlantic coastal settings adjacent to National Wildlife Refuges, National Seashores, and coastal areas that are experiencing intense development pressure. By determining the distribution, age, and movement of fresh and salt water beneath coastal waterways, project scientists are helping to address issues related to excess algal blooms and general environmental degradation that are attributed to nutrient over-enrichment in the bays on the Atlantic coast. Active collaborators and stakeholders currently include: EPA CISNet consortium, Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland Department of Natural Resources and other State agencies, University of Toledo and other universities, marine laboratories, and citizens' groups. USGS scientists look forward to including USFWS in these activities.

Maryland and Delaware studies

Chincoteague Bay is experiencing nutrient over-enrichment that is of concern to its primary managers, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service. Ground waters that are derived from agricultural areas and discharge into the bay are suspected of being major contributors to the nitrogen content of the water in Chincoteague Bay. USGS scientists conducted new offshore drilling and geophysical surveys in Chincoteague Bay and Indian River to address the enrichment of nutrients in these two places. Their findings determined that

1. Extensions of shallow, onshore aquifers that contain young, fresh ground water underlie significant areas of Chincoteague Bay and Indian River Bay.
2. Nutrients in the ground water under the bays may commonly be broken down before being discharged to the surface water.

These results suggest that ground water may influence much larger areas of coastal bay systems than previously thought, and that our understanding of the nutrient chemistry involved needs to be modified. USGS findings will be applied to future land-use decisions and nutrient-management strategies in Delmarva watersheds, including the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Proposed study: Coastal ground water in North Carolina -- Regional interaction between aquifers and the Lower Neuse River estuary

The water resources and ecosystems of coastal North Carolina, especially the lower Neuse River estuary, are stressed by population growth and industrial and agricultural development in the watershed. Issues of concern include:

1. Eutrophication of surface waters from release of nutrients derived from concentrated animal feeding operations and other sources
2. Migration of toxics from onshore sites to coastal waters
3. Plans for major interbasin and inter-aquifer transfer of water under Capacity Use Area efforts.

Recent work by the USGS has demonstrated that the flux of ground water to the coastal ocean has been underestimated. It is now recognized that this water flux can deliver a significant portion of the total nutrient load to coastal waters. This proposed study will consist of an interdisciplinary effort to address the flux of ground water and associated nutrients to the Lower Neuse River, North Carolina, focusing on the influences on regional water quality and ecosystem health. The results should be applicable to other similar coastal settings.

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Advanced methods of coastal science applications of temporal waveform-resolving airborne lidar

Light detection and ranging (lidar) data can be used to see through the vegetation cover of an area and to map the topography to within approximately 15 cm accuracy. Lidar can be used to study many coastal problems. After Hurricane Isabel, USFWS expressed interest in acquiring from the USGS any existing lidar data for the Great Dismal Swamp area in order to assess damage. Unfortunately, USGS did not have lidar data for this area. Lidar data have the potential to help here and in other applications, such as studies of coral reef ecosystems. USGS scientists are working with NPS and welcome the opportunity to work more closely with USFWS on lidar applications.

Northern Florida Keys:

Coral-reef ecosystem mapping undertaken by the USGS in the northern portion of the Florida Keys reef tract centered on the development and application of a new submarine topographic lidar in close collaboration with NASA, the Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL). The NASA EAARL is a temporal waveform-resolving, airborne green wavelength lidar that is designed to measure the topographic complexity of shallow reef substrates.

There is good reason to believe that rugosity measurements calculated from these data will be extremely useful in quantitatively describing reef viability. Presently, the only known method of measuring rugosity is by hand (the chain transect method) and DOE s not estimate rugosity on a large scale. The application of remote sensing techniques to this long-standing problem will be a big breakthrough for ecologists and resource mangers alike.

Federal government agencies (USFWS, NPS), State and territory governments are very concerned about habitat degradation, specifically coral reef decline. The model resulting from linking the lidar data set with data comprehensively describing the benthos will be a big step toward the meaningful application of the new lidar technology to tracking habitat condition.

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Mineral Resources

Pathways of metal transfer from mineralized sources to bioreceptors

Metal enriched water and sediment throughout the Coeur d'Alene River basin are the legacy of historical mining, milling, and smelting in the Coeur d'Alene mining district. The USGS Mineral Resources Program has a long history of work in this area, including participating in the multi-agency, Department of the Interior Natural Resources Damage Assessment of the basin. The research activities of the current USGS Pathways project is building on the earlier work by modeling complex systems to determine the pathways through which metals such as zinc and lead move in the environment.

High dissolved zinc concentrations are detrimental to fish, whereas high particulate lead concentrations have human and wildlife impacts. The Pathways project is synthesizing vast amounts of information into dynamic models to assist the USFWS and EPA in further defining links between physical and biogeochemical processes and health impacts in this system. The models will result in a deeper understanding of the processes that affect how zinc and lead move and are transformed between dissolved and particulate phases. The models will identify dominant processes and, thereby, assist in targeting remediation and management activities in this complex system.

Modeling work currently is focused on dissolved Zinc, which is more of interest to EPA than USFWS. Future work will attempt to model particulate Lead, an element of particular interest to USFWS owing to Lead poisoning of migrating waterfowl.

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Geochemical landscapes

The USGS and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are currently studying the feasibility of a national-scale soil geochemical survey to increase the sample density of the current USGS data set by at least a factor of 10. The first three years of the project will be devoted to determining how such a survey should be conducted. USGS is therefore actively soliciting input from potential customers of the new data. Interested members of the private sector, government, or academic communities are asked to provide input on a design for sampling the nation, establishing sampling and analytical protocols, and the types of products that will be most useful.

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New efforts in the eastern U.S.

USGS, Eastern Region, and USFWS, Northeast Region, have begun joint planning processes in order to maximize science efforts and resources. They have identified three topics for initial project consideration: (1) urban growth, (2) watershed health assessment and techniques, and (3) coastal and estuary issues. Geologic investigations will be a component of each of these ventures.

Two initial projects are a pilot project in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to explore the use of light detection and ranging (lidar) mapping to develop predictive models for wetland changes, and an integrated science approach to studying the Connecticut river watershed and Long Island sound to support environmental and economic sustainability.